Americas

Equity investors have begun in recent months to allocate capital away from some of the high growth firms which dominated equity capital market supply this year to more cyclical companies that are set to benefit when economies reopen from Covid-19 lockdowns. They are also looking to buy into emerging markets, predicting rising equity valuations in places like Russia and some parts of Latin America.

In what is likely to have been the final Latin America new bond issue of 2020, Paraguayan beef exporter Frigorífico Concepción added $21m to its January 2025s in a small tap on Friday.

This week in Keeping Tabs: Republicans battle over Federal Reserve support, a look back at the "Spanish" flu, and a quiz from the Bank of England.

Governments have had little choice but to load up on debt to save their economies. With the crucial support of low interest rates and vast quantitative easing programmes, there is little immediate threat to debt sustainability. But as Jasper Cox reports, nothing lasts forever.

Despite funding stresses in certain Latin American countries, bond markets will continue to help the region with its financing needs. For now, this eases the pressure for reform and fiscal consolidation, but issuers must eventually face up to political and social turbulence. Oliver West reports.

Primary bond markets in Latin America and CEEMEA finally took some rest this week after a busier than usual December, but bankers covering both regions expect emerging markets borrowers to be fast out of the blocks in January as EM credit looks continued to benefit from low rates.

An extraordinary year for the US corporate bond market ended on a high this week, as Jerome Powell gave a dovish statement at the end of the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting which left participants certain the Fed had the market's back.

This year proved to be one of the most dramatic on record for corporate financiers as volumes rose from the ashes of the market sell-off. David Rothnie examines some of the themes that defined the year and looks ahead to 2021.

US-listed Chinese companies have raised more than $12bn from equity investors in the past month, with iQiyi becoming the latest to simultaneously sell a convertible bond and price a follow-on offering of its American depositary shares. With valuations soaring for many of these stocks, bankers expect more issuers to jump into the market in 2021, writes Jonathan Breen.

After a torrid year, Peru’s domestic bond market is enjoying a minor resurgence this month. But with local pension funds still not offering corporate borrowers pre-crisis levels of funding, DCM bankers believe Peruvian companies may turn to international funding markets in greater numbers during 2021.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) said on Wednesday that it would mobilise $1bn of resources to support Latin American and Caribbean countries in their efforts to acquire and distribute Covid-19 vaccines, as analysts warn most of the economic benefits from vaccinations may only reach Latin America in the second half of 2021.

Chinese streaming platform iQiyi has kicked off a combined convertible bond and follow-on offering that could raise around $1.7bn.